Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-10-06


Drawing tie Storm and getting away; but
was almost blown of my feet. A glance
wiih,aH showed me that the CUTS with which
the swamp WAS tsaversesi in every direction
were now full to the brim, and to attempt TO
find my way home in the darkness would lie
sheer madness; so, after a wistful survey, |
returned Ia my wretched perch. l thought |
would try ami light fire, but To my conster-
nation had not match, and | finally aban-
,l"nt,l myself 10 my fate. 1t was desolate, |
il npt stspairing, feeling that experienced |
My lind was filled, not only with my own
unhnppine,', but with the Ihonght of the dis
tres my absence would occasion them at |
home; amt Tor little while had fleeting |
hope that a party would be sent out to search |
fnr me This, however was untenable, for |
they would MOI know where | was. The last |
place IN which they would ever think of look
ing for me was No liaid Pawn, and even if
they knew was there they could no more
get 70 ne in the darkness and the storm than
| could escape from ii.
accordingly propped myself up on my
h'd and gave myself up tn my reflections | |
said MY prayers very feivently. | thought
"naId Try and get 10 sleep, but sleep was far
from Jay eyes
MY surroundings We're too vivid to
nay apprehension. The awful traditions
oi the place. DO what mi Eht to Danish them,
would come to my mind The original build
ing Of the house, and its blood stained founda-
Hon stones; the deaf who had died of the
pestiience that had ragged afterward the
bodies cartel by scores and buried in the
sohby earth OF the graveyard, whose trees
doomed up through tic broken window; the
dreadful story of the dead padding about the
swamp in their collins; and, above all, the
gigantic maniac whose ferocity even murder
could not satiate and who had added to muir
der awful mu;ilation: he had dragged the
manged corpse Of his victim up those very
steps and flung it out of the very window
which CAPPED Just heyond me in the glare Of
the lightning 1t all passed through my mind
as | sat there in the darkness, and no effort
OF my will could keep my theughts from
dwelling on it The terrific thunder, out
crashing Thousand batteries, ut times en-
crossed my attention; but it always reverted
to that scene of horror; and if l dozed, the
slamming of the loose blinds, or the terrific
fury ot the storm, would suddenly startle me
Once as the sounds subsidized for a moment
on else having become familiar with them,
as was sinking into a sleepy state, door at
the other end of the hall creaked and then
slammed with violence, bringing me bolt up
right ON the bed, clutchng my gun. ! could
have sworn that | heard footsteps; but the
wind WAS blowing hurricane, and after
another period of wakefulness and dreadful
recollection, nature succumbed, and | fell
| asleep.
| do not know thai I can be said to have
lost consciousness even then, for my mind
was still enchained by the horrors of my
situation, and went on clinging to them and
dwelling upon them even in my slumber.
| was, however, certainly asleep; for the
storm must have died temporarily away
about this hour without my knowing it, and
subsequently, heard that it did
must have slept several hours, for l was
quite stiff from my constrained posture when
became fully aroused
l was awakened by a very peculiar
| sound; it was like a distant call or halloo
| Although | had been fast asleep a mo
rent before, it startled me into a state
| of the highest attention. In a second !
was wide awake. There was not a sound ex-
cept the rumble and roll of the thunder as
the stosn once more began to renew itself
and in the segment of the circle that | could
see along the hall through my door, and in
deed out through the yawning window at the
end, as far as the black clump of trees in the
| graveyard just at the bend of the canal,
which | commanded from my seat, whenever
there was lash of lightning, there was only
| the swaying of the bushes in the swamp and
of the trees in the graveyard. Yet there
sat bolt upright on my bed, in the darkness
with every nerve strained to its utmost tell
sion, and that unearthly cry still sounding in
my ears. | was endeavoring to reason my
self into the belief that | had dreamed it,
when flash of lightning lit up the whole
field of my vision as if it had been In the
focus of a sun glass, and out on the canal
where it curved around the graveyard was a
boat-snall, black, with square ends, and
with man i'll it, standing upright, and SOME
thing lying in a lump or mass at the bow.
| knew could not be mistaken, for the
lightning 10y process Of its own photographs
everything on the rttina i'll minutest detail,
and had a vivid impression Of everything
from the foot of the bed which crouched TO
the gaunt arms of those black trees in the
grave )rd just over that ghostly boatman
and bis dreadful freight. | was wide awake
The story of the dead rowing in their collins
was verified
I am unable to state what passed III the next
few minutes.
The storm had burst again with renewed
violence AMI was once more expanding itself
ON the house; the thunder was again rolling
overhead the broken blinds We're swinging
and sannning ma1ly; and tue dreadful
memories OF the place were once more btset-
ting HE.
shifted my position to relieve the cramp
it had oecasioned, still keeping my face to
ward that fatal window As | did SO
heard above, or perhaps | should say
under, the storm sound more ter.
Iible to me-the repetition of that weird
halloo, this time almost under the great win
dow. immediately Succeeding this was the
sound of something scraping under the wall,
and was sensible when door on the ground
floor was struck with heavy thud. 1t was
pitch dark, but | heard the door pushed fde
open, and as a string of fierce oaths, part
English and part Creole French floated up
the dark stairway, muffied as il sworn through
clinch-d teeth held my breath recalled
the unknown tongue the ghostly murderer
employed; and knew that the murderer of
No Had Pawn bad left his grave, and that
hiaghost was coming up that stair. | heard
his step as it fell on the first stair heavily, yet
almost noiseIessly 1t was an unearthly sound
dull, like the tread of barred foot accom-
panied by the scraping sound of a body drag
ging. Step by step he came up the black
stairway in the pitch darkness as steadily as
if it were daytine-and he knew every step
accompanied 10y that sickenlng sound Of drag
ging. There was final pull up the last step,
and dull heavy thud, with a strange,
wild laugh he flung his burden on the floor
For moment there was not a sound and
then the awful silence and blackness were
broken by a crash of thunder that seemed to
tear the foundations asunder like a mighty
earthquake, and the whole house and the
of vivid, binding. light. Directly in front Of
me, clutching in his appraised hand a long,
keen, glittering knife, on whose blade hall
of fire seemed to play, stood gigantic figure
in the very flame of the lightning, and
stretched at his feet lay, CHASTITY and bloody,
a black and headless trunk
| staggered to the door and, tripping, fell
prustrate over the sill
When could get there nothing was left
but TIE foundation The haunted house when
struck had literally burned to the waters
edge. The change current Ind washed its
way close to the place, aud, in strange verif
cation of the negroes tradition No Haid
Pawn had reclaimed its own, and the spot,
with all its secrets, lay buried under its dark
waters. Nelson Page in Scribner's